The two sat down, and Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, inquired about the Butcher's condition. Qin Mu replied, "Everything is fine. The old man's lower half is gone, but his cultivation is very high, and his hands move as fast as flying."
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, was puzzled. "Since you and I share the same master, why are you also studying medicine from the Jade-Faced Poison King? Is the Jade-Faced Poison King also your master?"
Qin Mu nodded, but did not tell him that besides the Herbalist and the Butcher, he had other masters as well.
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, stared blankly, then suddenly said, "I think I know where Master's lower half is! Back then, the old man slashed his blade at the sky, and his body fell from the air. It seems his lower half was snatched by the disciples of a certain sect. Junior Brother, you've studied medicine under the Jade-Faced Poison King and are highly skilled. I want to ask you—if we find Master's lower half, can it be reattached?"
Qin Mu hesitated for a moment. "If it had just been cut off, yes. All we'd need to do is stimulate the body's vitality and use medicines to regenerate flesh and essence, and the severed flesh could reconnect, the severed tendons rejoin, and the severed bones reshape. However, so much time has passed... I'm afraid his lower half is long dead..."
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, slumped in dejection, then rallied his spirits. "Even so, we must retrieve Master's lower half!"
Qin Mu nodded. "Senior Brother should first investigate exactly which sect took it, so we don't go looking in the wrong place."
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, rose and left, but soon returned. "Master's lower half was picked up over two hundred years ago, and it's unknown whether it's still in that sect. I've already sent people to investigate. Once we find its whereabouts, we'll go retrieve it."
Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief. If they could find the Butcher's lower half, whether or not it could be reattached, it would still be a good thing.
The Butcher only had his upper body left, and his strength was greatly diminished. If his lower half had been taken, it might still be preserved.
After all, his power was extremely formidable.
As a warrior of the combat arts school, reaching the stage where the physical body is indestructible shouldn't be difficult. Many accomplished monks from Buddhist sects could achieve indestructible bodies—after death, their bodies would not decay or rot, and would be enshrined in temples as living Buddha statues.
However, the true challenge was making the body undying.
Those living Buddha statues in temples had actually already died. An undying body was a level above an indestructible one—the blood doesn't coagulate, the body doesn't stiffen, the heart keeps beating, and the nerves remain connected. That was what an undying body truly meant.
"Senior Brother Bashan, do you know Grandpa Butcher's real name?" Qin Mu suddenly remembered something and asked.
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, shook his head. "I don't. I only know others call him the Heavenly Blade. His worldly name—that, no one knows. Master said he had an enemy who could know a person's name and use it to curse them, so he rarely reveals his name to anyone."
Qin Mu was stunned. This sounded like the methods of the great shamans of the Barbarian Di Kingdom. Had the Butcher offended a great shaman of the Barbarian Di Kingdom in the past?
He calmed his mind and continued practicing the three sword forms taught by the State Preceptor of Yankang. Of the Preceptor's three sword forms, he had already mastered the Circling Sword Form and found it hard to make further progress. He now began training in the other two.
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, drank wine while watching from the side, wanting to offer guidance on his training. But after watching for a while, Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, didn't say a single word.
He had seen other scholars practice the Wandering Sword Form—some clumsy, some agile. But in Qin Mu's hands, the Wandering Sword Form produced hundreds upon hundreds of sword qi that sometimes swam like fish, sometimes darted like startled swans, sometimes soared like dragons. The sword qi was never a fixed shape, constantly shifting and changing.
To have such solid fundamentals and be so versatile at the same time—throughout the entire Imperial Academy, only Qin Mu could do this!
Qin Mu practiced the Wandering Sword Form he didn't know how many times, striving to explode all his body's strength in a single thrust.
His Wandering Sword Form grew more and more powerful, watching Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, forget to drink for a long while.
After practicing it hundreds and thousands of times, Qin Mu switched to the Drilling Sword Form, similarly grinding his fundamentals, striving to concentrate all his power into the sword and unleash every ounce of his potential.
His potential wasn't just in his sword techniques. The cripple's movement skills, the Butcher's blade techniques, Ma Ye's fist techniques, the blind man's divine eye, the deaf man's painting skill, the mute's hammering techniques—all of them, he used as methods of generating force.
After a long while, Qin Mu stopped, drenched in sweat. He took out the Heavenly Fragrance Silk handkerchief and wiped himself down.
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, suddenly said, "Junior Brother—was it you who drove away the Dao Child and the Buddha Child?"
Qin Mu regulated his breathing and didn't hide it from him. "The Dao Child lost to me by half a move. As for the Buddha Child, I didn't fight him."
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, exhaled a long breath and muttered, "When I saw your swordsmanship, I guessed it was you. Come to think of it—did you really shout 'I've finally mastered condensing qi into threads' during the Preceptor's sword lecture?"
Qin Mu's face flushed slightly.
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, had a strange expression. "You only achieved condensing qi into threads at that point? If you hadn't mastered condensing qi into threads, how did you defeat Daoist Lingyun?"
Qin Mu thought for a moment. "I just thrust my sword, and he was defeated."
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, was speechless. "What do you mean 'just thrust your sword, and he was defeated'?"
Qin Mu scratched his head. "How about this, Senior Brother—use your Five Planets realm cultivation to block my sword."
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, sealed off his other divine repositories, his battle spirit roaring. He shouted, "I'm ready!"
Nearby, Hu Ling'er and the Green Ox were drinking themselves bleary-eyed, arguing about becoming sworn siblings. The little fox glanced over at Qin Mu and Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, and burst out laughing. "Big Ox, your master is about to get wrecked!"
The Green Ox snorted. "My master won't get wrecked—"
Qin Mu rolled up a piece of firewood, using it as a sword, and thrust it forward. Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, raised his hand to block. With a thunderous boom, the gate of the Scholar's Residence where Qin Mu lived shattered into countless pieces, and a large section of the wall collapsed along with it!
The Green Ox hadn't even finished his sentence and immediately shut his mouth.
Qin Mu sheathed his sword and hurried outside. Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, stood up from the rubble, covered in dust, unsealed his other divine repositories, and chuckled. "I thought Daoist Lingyun had taken a bribe! No wonder—even I would have been caught off guard and unable to block it."
He wasn't injured. The piece of firewood that had struck his chest had been shattered by his yuanqi into wooden splinters before it could harm him.
Many scholars from the Scholar's Residence rushed out. Seeing Qin Mu's gate destroyed, they secretly rejoiced: "That abandoned commoner surnamed Qin dared to write words insulting the scholars of our State of Yankang on his door. Now he's suffered for it! The Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine himself came to tear down his gate—where's his face now!"
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, swept his gaze over them and waved his hand. "Disperse, disperse—nothing to see here. I was just sparring with Scholar Qin."
"So he really did beat up that Qin fellow." The scholars understood, gloating as they looked at Qin Mu.
To their surprise, Qin Mu still looked fresh and immaculate, while Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, was covered in dust. It didn't look like Qin Mu had been beaten at all—it looked more like Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, was the one in a sorry state.
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, examined the gate and the collapsed wall, looking somewhat troubled. "No wonder the Grand Sacrificial Wine said you nearly tore down the entire Scholar's Residence. If you fought in the Scholar's Residence, tearing the whole place apart wouldn't take much time. Your skill is extremely high, but it seems your cultivation technique has a flaw—there's a weakness on your left shoulder."
He hadn't deliberately lowered his voice, so the scholars who hadn't yet left overheard immediately. Their eyes lit up one by one.
"So his weakness is on his left shoulder!"
Shen Wanyun took a deep breath. He had sensed that Qin Mu's cultivation technique seemed to have some roughness, but he had never been able to pinpoint where the flaw was. Now, at last, Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, had pointed it out.
"Now, my position as the First Senior Brother can be preserved," he thought to himself.
"These walls and the door—have the servants come to repair them."
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, spotted Shen Wanyun and called him over. Shen Wanyun quickly bowed. "Teacher!"
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, smiled at Qin Mu. "In the Imperial Academy, there are few scholars I truly appreciate. Shen Wanyun is one I've personally trained. Junior Brother, what do you think?"
Qin Mu nodded and praised, "No wonder Senior Brother Shen is so strong—it turns out you trained him. Senior Brother Shen is the First Senior Brother of the Scholar's Residence. Both his cultivation and combat power have reached an extremely high level. Once he enters the Divine Skill Residence, he'll surely shine brilliantly."
"Senior Brother? Junior Brother?" Shen Wanyun looked confused.
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, chuckled. "Junior Brother, why are you calling him Senior Brother? Call him Grand-Nephew. If you call him Senior Brother, wouldn't that mess up our generational order?"
Qin Mu hesitated. Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, walked into the courtyard and continued, "I realized long ago that relying solely on the National Academy to train scholars easily produces experts, but it also easily wastes talent. The National Academy teaches too many people. The same divine skill—some can learn it after seeing it once, while others need to see it ten or a hundred times. But the National Academy must treat everyone equally. Those who can learn after seeing it once must sit through a hundred repetitions alongside the slow learners, and only after the slow ones have learned can they move on to other techniques. This delays their cultivation progress."
Qin Mu and Shen Wanyun walked into the courtyard. Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, tossed over a wine gourd. "I once mentioned this to the Grand Sacrificial Wine. I told him the Imperial Academy's teaching suits talent picked from one in a thousand, but not the once-in-a-million talent. The Grand Sacrificial Wine let me try it myself. So I found Shen Wanyun and trained him privately for a time. Sure enough, he lived up to it and has been the First Senior Brother of the Scholar's Residence for years now. This proves that individual cultivation is far superior to the Imperial Academy's general teaching. Shen Wanyun is precisely that once-in-a-million talent."
"I see."
Qin Mu frowned. "If that's the case, how is the Imperial Academy any different from a sect?"
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, sighed. "That's exactly what the Grand Sacrificial Wine and the State Preceptor are both worried about. The Grand Sacrificial Wine is about to resign from his post, so the one most troubled by this now should be the State Preceptor. He knows the Imperial Academy has its shortcomings, which is why he took in a few disciples of his own and trains them personally. But there must be no small number of geniuses whose potential has been wasted by the Imperial Academy."
Qin Mu was lost in thought. What the State Preceptor faced was whether to deny his own reforms—and yet he couldn't deny them.
Primary schools, advanced academies, and the Imperial Academy far surpassed sects in mass-producing talent. If the problem of cultivating geniuses could be solved, they could surpass sects in every regard!
"How does the Emperor train the Crown Prince? When the Crown Prince was young, he had the Junior Guardians, Junior Preceptors, and Junior Tutors. When he grew up, he had the Senior Guardians, Senior Preceptors, and Senior Tutors. These guardians and tutors were all sect leader-level figures. That's how the Crown Prince was trained to be so powerful. I'm now trying to take a few scholars under my wing, teaching them cultivation techniques and divine skills according to their individual aptitudes."
Bashan, the Imperial Academy's Sacrificial Wine, continued, "The Grand Sacrificial Wine's idea is that once I've found the right approach, it can be rolled out to a wider scale. He said we should select learned and multi-talented scholars from the student body for the Sacrificial Wines to teach personally, separating them from those of ordinary aptitude. Junior Brother—you are to be the Imperial Academy's first Imperial Scholar. Scholar Qin."